


Communication

by OrganicGangster



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 19:18:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrganicGangster/pseuds/OrganicGangster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine hates most of the things in his life. His father is cruel and school is brutal. Is Blaine strong enough to make it through high school with only Rachel as his only friend and a brother who watches him like a hawk?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunrise

_**Communication** _

**Part I: Freshman Year**

_Chapter One_

Sunrise

**Yay! A new story! I'm so excited to start sharing this with you guys, because I've been working on the structure and things for quite some time. This story is already all done. I just have to put it all up and read some reactions to see if I need to make changes so like always, PLEASE REVIEW.**

**A few important things to note quickly:**

**-This story will have four parts, each part representing a different year of high school for Blaine.**

**-I'm hoping for at least six to ten chapters per part, so yes, I plan to make this fic quite long.**

**-Unlike all of my other fics, this one will strictly be told in Blaine's POV.**

**-Yes, Sam will happen, even if it's not immediately the way you want it to.**

**-There will be no full sections for the summer between terms, these will be talked about in chapters, or get their very own.**

**Once again guys, I'm super excited to _finally_ share this with you. I'm so proud of what it's going to become and I really hope you guys are ready to enjoy it with me!**

It was a loud banging on his door made Blaine awake with a start.

"Wake up Blaine! It's almost six-thirty!" Cooper said from the other side of the thin wood that protected Blaine's world from the one on the other side of it.

"Kay." Blaine mumbled as he swung around on his bed, his bare feet touching the cold, hard and old wood beneath him. Blaine wasn't fully sitting up before his head throbbed. Almost immediately, Blaine's hands shot up to his temples and began to rub them. This was routine for Blaine to wake up this way, especially when his father had been drinking heavily the night before and ran out of things to throw at him. Unfortunately for Blaine, his father still had at leave one forty ounce beer bottle left in his arsenal, and even more unfortunate, Blaine couldn't dodge it before his collided and shattered on his head.

 _It's going to be another one of those days..._  Blaine thought to himself as he kept rubbing his head. Days like this were always hard for him. He was only five minutes into the day, and it was already awful, which meant the rest of the day was only going to be worse. More banging came to his door, but Blaine didn't move.

"Come on Squirt! Are you awake?" Cooper yelled again, was shouting really necessary this early?

"Yes." Blaine said clearly to make sure his brother heard him. If only Cooper knew what had happened last night before he left on his date, he wouldn't be banging and yelling at Blaine.

"Okay! You got five minutes before I come back!"

Blaine sighed, and stood up, even though his head protested against it. Ignoring it, he moved around the small room, looking for clothes that made him at least somewhat presentable to the world. Blaine room was small, and the walls were a dark, navy blue, a color his mother picked before she died. Blaine plastered posters and pictures on the walls to cover up the color after a while. The color made him too sad, but he couldn't find the will to re-paint, so he just covered it, leaving only enough paint visible to remind him that it was still there. His floors where an old and faded oak color. Small piles of clothes were scattered around, mostly stuffed in the corners so Blaine could still have mobility.

His room wasn't dirty, but more of an "organized mess" he liked to call it. It's not like his father was exactly concerned whether or not he kept it clean, or even cared that there was a massive pile of CD's piled up on his small computer desk by his tiny window.

Finally, finding a black Ramones shirt that Blaine actually really liked, and a pair of khaki colored chino pants, Blaine changed out of the basketball shorts and the plain black t-shirt he wore to bed. Sniffing to make sure the shower that he took last night had held up through his slumber, and being satisfied with how he smelled, Blaine bulled the pants on both legs at a time and slipped the shirt on quickly before Cooper could come back to bang on the damn door again.

Luckily, Blaine made it just in time because when he opened the door, Cooper was standing there, hand in the air, ready to bang away.

"Please don't bang on the door Coop." Blaine grumbled as he shuffled past his brother.

"Why?" Cooper asked as he followed Blaine down the narrow hallway towards the kitchen. When Blaine didn't answer immediately, Cooper spoke again. "He's asleep B. Passed out about an hour ago in his bed."

Blaine sighed with relief. At least he wouldn't have to deal with another headache on top of his other one. "He threw a bottle at me last night." Blaine said.

"Again?" Cooper was immediately angry as he plopped in the rusty dining chair across from the fridge, the yellow light from the bulb above them, making his blue eyes, look even more striking.

Yeah..." Blaine mumbled as he grabbed the milk carton from the fridge, only to find it empty. She scoffed. "No milk?" he complained to Cooper, who just nodded.

"Probably spent it all on booze again." Blaine remarked as he moved to the garbage can and tossed the cardboard inside.

"Probably." Cooper agreed. "Look Blaine," he stood up and walked towards his brother, his full six-foot figure making Blaine's five-eight figure look measly. "I told you to call me if he did that to you again."

Blaine put his hand up to push away the oncoming argument that he was surely coming. "I'm wasn't going to ruin that date for you Coop." Cooper went on dates at least twice a week. Being as handsome as he was, he was kind of a hot commodity around Lima, except for the McKinley girls of course. He had bright blue eyes, that complimented his wavy dark hair stunningly. Since he was on the football team for all four years of his high school career, he was quite muscular.

"Blaine." Cooper's voice became irritated and authoritative. "I got you that phone for a reason. Besides, I don't give a damn about that girl last night. She wouldn't even kiss me afterward... Slut." he whispered the last word.

Blaine chuckled. "Yeah, she's the slut 'cause she didn't kiss you. Maybe I'll call the cops. They should know about this  _crime_ to humanity."

"Hilarious Blaine." Cooper retorted sarcastically as Blaine walked to the front room. "And don't change the subject on me man. This is important."

Blaine rolled his eyes as he sat down on the musty, yellow couch. The sunlight from the window behind him, showcased the massive amount of dust that flew up from the cushion and were now drifting to the dirty carpet below. Cooper sat to his left. His head was throbbing still, maybe he could get some Advil from Rachel again. She always had some just in case.

"Blaine!"

" _OKAY._ " Blaine cut him off as he grabbed his shoes from the side of the couch by the door. "I will call you next time. I promise." He looked at Cooper. "I promise."

"I know you think I'm annoying," The older boy sighed. "but I just want to make sure you're alright."

"Okay." Blaine repeated as he tied the laced to his black Vans.

Cooper stood when Blaine did, and faced him. "Ten more months baby bro. Then, I graduate and we both get out of here. You don't have to worry about him any more. I promise."

"It can't come fast enough." Blaine remarked. Cooper laughed and he cupped his hand on Blaine's shoulder.

"Are you all ready now?" Blaine nodded as he turned around and grabbed his backpack from the same side of the couch his shoes were on. "About time, gay people...I swear, all about the gllitz and glamor..." Cooper joke dramatically.

"Ha. Ha." It was Blaine's turn to be sarcastic as he shut the door behind him.

The drive to school was less than exhilarating for Blaine, paired with his still throbbing headache and the morning traffic, which was especially rough that morning, it caused the boys to arrive at school just ten minutes before the first bell rang. As usual, Rachel was waiting for Blaine and Cooper in the parking lot, looking around her like she was going to get something thrown at her any second.

"Bad traffic?" She huffed as she adjusted her black and white checkered sweater in the brightened sunlight. Her long brown hair was pushed back with a thick, white headband. Her pleated, black short skirt left some skin to the imagination, but the long, white socks that went to her knees quickly killed any sexual thought anyone could have of her. And if it didn't, her black flats made sure to seal the deal.

"Nah, Barry," Cooper made as he pulled his backpack out of the backseat and shut the door. "we actually just drove around the school five times to see how long you would wait for us." Blaine laughed loudly.

Rachel looked at Blaine incredulously. "Is that true?"

Blaine shook his head as his laughter died down. "Of course not, Rachel. The traffic  _was_  bad. Especially after the fourth time we went around." Now it was Cooper's turn to laugh as Rachel shot him a look of anger, Blaine ignored it with a smile as he walked past her and toward the massive brick, gray buildings.

William McKinley High School was one of six high schools in the school district. The others being Carmel High School, Thurston High School, Dalton Academy, Haverbrook School for The Deaf, and The Jane Addams Academy. Dalton was for the rich kids and was an all boys school, Jane Addamns was an all girls school, but instead of being for the wealthy, it housed troubled girls with criminal records. Haverbrook was, well for the Deaf; and Thurston and Carmel were regular public schools like McKinley.

William McKinley was home of the Titans. Their cheer leading squad was the best in the state, their football team never made it even that far, and everything else pretty much sucked in Blaine's opinion. Their principle, Figgans, was a weird and cheap Middle-Eastern man with a thick accent and a hairline that was receding at an alarming rate. Blaine guessed he would be bald before graduation.

As the three students walked through the bright and busy hallways, people bustled their way to class, not even apologizing for their shoulder colliding with either Blaine or Rachel. Some of them didn't even look back when Cooper yelled at them to watch it, the ones that did still didn't say anything. Even though Cooper was a football player, he still didn't get as much respect from people at the school.

The main reason? His gay brother and his weird friend, that he continue to defend no matter how many times he was accused of being gay, or purposely tackled on the field. He still protected Blaine and Rachel. Even if Blaine told him not to.

"You know the drill," His big brother said as they turned, almost reaching Coopers first period class. "If you need me, call me and I'll be there."

Blaine rolled his eyes when they stopped, of course he knew this, but before he could respond Rachel did it for him.

"Okay! Thank you Cooper." He just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Right..." he said, and he went inside the door just as the bell rang. Rachel and Blaine looked at each other, before they both quickly ran down the hall way towards class.


	2. Crushes

_**Communication** _

**Part I: Freshman Year**

_Chapter Two_

Crushes

 

"We've only been in school for two weeks and Shuester already assigned us an essay?" Rachel whined.

"Rach, it's only about Christopher Columbus." Blaine responded as they exited the History class room. "We've been learning about the same guy since kindergarten, and we have a whole week to do it.

I think you'll be fine."

"Yeah-but now I have to get my two gay dads to take me all the way to Columbus so I can research this topic thoroughly and ensure an A."

"No you don-" Before Blaine could finish his sentence, he was shoved into a row of lockers, hard. His bag fell from his shoulder and his head and right shoulder hit the cold metal with unforgivable force before his whole body fell onto the tile below him. Looking up he saw none other than most of the football team towering over him, all of them in their matching red and tan letter man jackets. Noah Puckerman, a tall sophomore with a mohawk and bronze skin, was standing in front and center smirking as his teammates laughed around him. On his right, Finn Hudson, a tall boy with brown hair laughed with a massive teammate.

"I thought I told you not to come back to my school Anderson?" Puck asked as the boys settled down around him.

"Well..." Blaine grunted as he stood up to face Puck. As he did this, the team created a half circle around him, now blocking a terrified Rachel who had her hands up to her mouth. Their movement caused Blaine to have to back into the locker to give himself space. "I would transfer Noah, but I just love it here so much."

"His name..." Finn said, stepping forward, his face only inches from Blaine's, "is Puck." He spat on the last word, giving Blaine's face an involuntary shower.

Blaine only closed his eyes when the spit came, but brought his hand up to wipe it up. When he re-opened his eyes, Finn had stepped back and Blaine took the opportunity to bow in front of Puck, without ever taking his eyes off of him.

"I'm so sorry my liege," Blaine announced sarcastically "please accept my apology as payment, for I have no money to give you." Finn laughed, but covered it up as soon as Puck looked at him.

Puck stepped forward as Blaine's body straightened out again. "Not funny faggot." he said and he punched Blaine in the ribs. As soon as Blaine fell down again, the boys left laughing down the hallways.

As soon as the coast was clear, Rachel ran towards Blaine. She put her hands on his shoulder and side. "Are you okay Blaine?" She asked, concerned.

"Oh you know..." he responded between coughs. "just another day."

"Do you want me to call Cooper?"

Blaine shook his head violently. The last thing he needed, besides the people who were looking at him struggle up from the ground with Rachel's help, was to have Cooper show up and start yelling at people around them for not helping him. As he stood up, his head throbbed more violently than it already was that morning.

"Do you have Advil?" Blaine asked, now finally standing and rubbing the side of his head.

"I do!" Rachel said as she dived into her bag and pulled out a small bottle. She put two little, white pills into his outstretched hand, and took a quick look around for a teacher before he shoved them into his mouth and swallowed them dry. He then walked towards where his backpack was, and scooped it up before walking down the hallways angrily, Rachel following quickly behind.

-ooOOoo-

All throughout Blaine's second hour, Algebra, his head continue to hurt, the Advil only dulling the pain minutely, and temporarily. Blaine couldn't even pay attention to the importance of the Quadratic Formula, even though he tried desperately. Only when the teacher, Mrs. Ackers, assigned homework and the bell rang did Blaine slam his notebook shut angrily, having but a few notes to show for the day, and stormed out of the classroom not looking forward to that evenings homework.

When Blaine reached the hallway, his phone buzzed. Sighing, Blaine took it out of his pocket and found a text from Cooper on his screen.

**You got beat up again?**

Blaine shook his head and rolled his eyes all at once as he leaned up against the wall wand waited for Rachel to get out of French.

**I did not get beat up. I got punched Coop, don't believe everything everyone tells you.**

Hitting the send button, Blaine leaned up against the wall and closed his eyes. This was one of the few safe spots he actually could close his eyes in this school. The football players didn't have Math until late in the afternoon, and they mostly stayed away from the math classrooms.

Cooper should be used to Blaine at least getting punched everyday. He had been getting picked on ever since he came out in middle school. Blaine regretted ever doing it in the first place. He tells one boy that he like, likes him on a stupid Valentines Day card and he gets tormented for the rest of his life. When the boy got the card he told everyone in his class about it and the word got around faster than fire in a dry field. The next day, Puck and Finn started picking on him.

At first they just called him a faggot everyday and told everyone he had diseases. Blaine lost a lot of friends during that year, but a few stuck around, until the summer before high school when Puck and Finn promised much more action to make him go away. The first day of freshman year, they jumped Blaine after school and hit hit at least once a day, everyday after that, and all of Blaine;s friends left him to fend for himself, besides Rachel of course.

Blaine had been getting bullied for so long now, that he didn't really care about it much anymore. Sure, the constant headaches and watching his back were annoying, but he knew that he couldn't do anything about it. And the only teachers that seemed to give a damn were the history teacher, Mr. Shuester, the P.E teacher, Coach Bieste and the guidance counselor, Mrs. Pillsbury. Blaine went to Principle Figgans at the beginning of the year, but as soon as he heard that it was the football players he refused to believe it and did nothing. The football coach, Tenaka, laughed in his face and told him to "quit being a fairy." After that, Blaine just started dealing with it each day, not even telling Cooper if he could avoid it.

"Sorry I'm late!" Rachel said, running up to him, out of breath and shoving papers into her bag. Blaine opened his eyes and leaned off the wall to look at her. "Madame Yvette wouldn't let us leave unless we asked in French."

"That's annoying..." Blaine observed as his phone buzzed again.

**Why didn't you call me?**

Blaine ignored the text. "Does your head still hurt?" Rachel asked as she adjusted her backpack onto her shoulders.

"Yeah." he answered as they walked towards English. "My dad threw a bottle at me last night, and with the locker-"

"Again?" Rachel echoed Cooper.

"Yeah... I didn't dodge it fast enough."

"I told you that you could come and stay with me Blaine!" Rachel said grabbing his wrist as they walked. "All I have to do is ask my dads. I know they'll say yes, and we have that guest room-"

"No Rachel." Blaine cut her off. "I don't want people to know what he does because then they'll feel all sorry for me and Cooper and tell us how it's not our fault and have a thousand people ask us a bunch of questions," Blaine put his hand up in front of him. "and I just don't want to deal with that, or make Cooper deal with it."

Rachel pursed her lips with disapproval, but didn't push the issue as they turned into English class. Blaine like English, actually Blaine  _loved_ English for a couple of reasons. One of which being the fact that he got to write. In English he could write about anything. His dad, Cooper, Puck and Finn, Rachel, his hopes, his dreams, anything. Of course, if he did decide to write about his dad he would just lie and say it was all made up.

The second thing? Sam. Sam Evans was a freshman like Blaine. He was about six foot tall, had bright blonde hair, green eyes and the body of an Abrecombie model. To Blaine he was gorgeous, but also very off-limits. Besides, being as straight as a ruler, he was also sporting a red and tan letter man jacket, signaling to all that he was indeed a football player. His right hand man, Micheal Chang was also quite attractive. He was an Asian boy, with darker skin and jet black hair that was always styled perfectly with gel. He too was built to perfection and from what he heard around school, he was amazingly brilliant, never having gotten anything less than an A in any class.

Blaine had been nursing a crush on Sam since the first day he saw him in English. Unlike his friend, Sam wasn't too bright, having trouble reading aloud was a struggle for him. However, Blaine never viewed Sam and Mike as a threat. They seemed like nice guys. They never once shoved Blaine into a locker or called him a name or even looked his way. They mostly kept to themselves and apparently weren't too good of friends with Puck and Finn.

This was the only class Blaine actually approved of assigned seating, mostly because the seats the students picked on the first day became their permanent seats for the year. Luckily for Blaine, Mike and Sam came in late on the first day and took the two seats in the far back, right in front of he and Rachel, who was sitting on his left by a large window. Sam in front of Blaine, and Mike in front of Rachel.

Their teacher, Mr. Caine, was an older guys with thin, horned-rimmed glasses and a hairline that had receded to the middle of his head, but still didn't interfere with the medium length, gray ponytail he always had. He was tall and slender, and he always wore a bow-tie that matched his pick of dress shirt for the day. Some would describe Mr, Caine as a hippy, but Blaine just found him to be reserved and optimistic.

"Good morning class!" He exclaimed as soon as the bell rang. "Today will be an easy day as we are going to start a series of three group projects." Rachel and Blaine looked at each other and Rachel smiled at him. "The first one will be a personal narrative, not about you, but your partner. The second project will be a four person group project that will allow you to create a story about the other three in a fictional setting, and the last will be a one-on-one project where you will use music to describe your partner."

At the finish of his sentence the students began to chatter with each other, all of them either excited about the projects or groaning form the amount of work that it was going to entail. It wasn't very long before Mr. Caine put a hand up to re-gather attention from the students before he continued.

"Now, there is one twist," Blaine internally groaned, he knew what was coming. "I will be picking your partners, and it will be someone I assume you don't know, so If you're friends now, pretend you aren't."

Immediately Sam stiffened up in front of Blaine and scooted his desk away from Mike, who was giggling into his hand.

"Nice try Evans." Mr. Caine called to him. "I know you and Micheal are friends, so too late." Sam and Mike both dramatically collapsed onto their desks, which caused Blaine to chuckle.

"So..." the teacher said as he walked to his desk and picked up an old clipboard with a stack of papers. "These partners are final. I'm not switching them no matter what. If you do all of the work, then you get a better grade, and trust me when I say," his blue eyes peeked over his glasses to his classroom. "I will know if you didn't do the work." Then, he winked with a smile.

As Mr. Caine started reading names off the list, it seemed to Blaine that he was just picking names at random and pairing people up however he saw fit. About halfway through the list he paired Rachel with Mike, who turned to look at his partner and gave her a small smile, which caused her to blush heavily for a couple of minutes. At that moment, Blaine realized that Rachel was out of commission and he started praying he would get Sam. At least he would be able to spend a little time with him before he started to be his full time bully.

Mr. Caine walked towards Blaine's desk as he looked over his list. "Anderson." Blaine looked up at him.

_Please let it be Sam. Please let it be Sam. Please let it be Sam._

"You will partner with..." He paused. It was like agony. There were only a couple of kids left and both of them were supremely unattractive girls who just looked like they smelled bad. "Evans."

And Blaine internally celebrated.


	3. Daddy Issues

_**Communication** _

**Part I: Freshman Year**

_Chapter Three_

Daddy Issues

**Enjoy! :D**

Blaine's excitement level was through the roof. He was  _actually_ assigned to work on a project with Sam! Internally, Blaine knew it was a little creepy, how excited he was, but he didn't care. He actually had a chance to spend time with Sam before he turned into a juiced up meat head. The rest of his school day didn't even matter after English. Everything whizzed by, and Blaine just couldn't wait for the next day to come so he and Sam could actually get started, as Sam couldn't get an outline done fast enough for them to get any work done during that period.

"You had a good day then?" Cooper asked as he drove the boys home from school.

"It was alright." Blaine said, trying to cover up any abnormalities in his voice.

"Dude," Cooper saw his lie and glanced sideways at him. "You've been smiling like a kid on Christmas morning since lunch. You can tell me if you'd like."

"I would not like to." Blaine responded simply.

"Fine." Cooper made as he turned down their street. "Don't tell me. I'll just have to suffer."

"You'll go to your grave with the unknown."

"Come oooooon." Cooper whined as he parked in their drive way. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

"When did you become a gossipy girl?" Blaine laughed, grabbing his bed and getting out of Cooper's '92 Nissan.

"I'm not a girl." Cooper shut the driver side door.

"You sure wound like one." Blaine muttered as he walked up to the porch, a smile curling on his lips.

Blaine's good day suddenly collapsed as soon as he made it to the front door of their, tiny and ugly brown house. He stopped and took a small step to the left. Cooper always went into the house first when their dad was awake. This became customary after he kept throwing things at Blaine if he entered before Cooper.

"It's alright man." Cooper said, a hand resting on Blaine's shoulder. "I'll be here all night." His big brothers eyes looking into his hazel ones.

Blaine nodded, grateful that Cooper wasn't leaving. Even though Blaine always made Cooper go on his dates, or wherever he went, sometimes he wished that Cooper, would just tell him to shut up and straight up refused. Blaine guessed he was just too good at deceiving Cooper into doing things, even if he didn't want them done. Cooper opened the door and the sound of the television poured outside. Cooper walked in, Blaine followed closely behind him.

Blaine kept his eyes on the ground, moving quickly to get to his room before-

"Hiding behind your brother again?" Blaine's dad's slurred voice like metal scraping on a chalkboard to Blaine's ears. Blaine stopped dead, for if he kept going it would only make things worse. "What a little bitch..."

"Well, if you didn't throw things at him..." Cooper said as Blaine closed the door behind them, his voice bigger than it normally was.

Blaine heard his dad step up from his chair so he looked up. His father normally wore only a white tank-top, topped off with various alcohol and food stains and boxer shorts. He always sat in the same black chair that was positioned only a few feet away from their tiny television. Alcohol bottles and cans were scattered around the chair, littering the floor and making an awful stench cling to the air. His father only seemed to shave every once in a while, and apparently he was feeling adventurous that morning because his wrinkled and angry face was clean. He had a full head of shaved black and gray hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in sometime, despite his obvious trip to the restroom to shave. He was short like Blaine, but much more round. He stuck his belly out towards Cooper as he stuck a sausage like finger in his face, his gray eyes looked angrily at his son.

"You shut your mouth boy." He said gruffly as Cooper's expression didn't change. "That faggot gets what he deserves, if your mother could see him now-" Blaine winced at the words. No matter how many times he said, Blaine still felt he sting from it.

"She would love him and be very proud of him." Cooper finished his sentence.

Blaine father took a step closer to Cooper, who only stood taller. "She would hate him as much as I do. If it weren't for the damn money I get from the government for taking care of you boys-" Cooper scoffed.

"You don;t take care of us. You spend all of the damn money on alcohol. Don't pretend to do something you don't." Blaine interjected, Cooper's eyes went wide and before Blaine could realize his mistake, their fathers eyes fixed on his smaller sons frame.

"What did you just say to me?" He said menacingly, stepping towards Blaine. Cooper mocked the steps, making sure he was close enough to get in between the two if something were to happen. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!" His father spat as the words flew out of his mouth.

"N-nothing." Blaine said, fear creeping into him quickly and his mind cursing at him for speaking.

"Dad, go sit down." Cooper said, his hand on top of the dirty tank top.

"NO." The older man yelled back, never taking his eyes off of Blaine. Blaine moved back until his calves hit a small glass table that was situated away into a corner. "This boy needs to learn respect Cooper!"

"No, he doesn't." Cooper returned with a warning tone.

"Get-off-of-me!" Blaine's father yelled as he pushed passed Cooper's hand, causing the teenager to fall into the wall and trip over an unknown object. The next second, Blaine saw his dad rush at him like and angry bull, his fist pulled back, before flying forward like a bullet from a gun chamber.

Blaine felt the hard knuckles connect with his nose, and heard a small pop. He felt his bag fly off of his arm for the second time that day as he fell backward. He barely had time to register that his nose hurt before his whole body screamed in agony, small pieces of glass slicing his skin, his shirt not thick enough to protect his back. Then he felt his hands sting terribly as the shards cut him without relent.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Blaine heard Cooper yell. Blaine bulled his hands up from beneath him, and saw the hot blood pooling out from his palms, the small sparkles of glass glistening in the faint light that managed to get through the curtains.

"That fairy needs to learn some damn respect!" Blaine heard his dad yell. For a fraction of a moment, Blaine couldn't understand why blood was dripping onto his hand, until the bridge of his nose painfully reminded him. Instinctively, Blaine's fingers went up to his nose and pinched it as he tilted his head back.

"That's not the way to teach him!" Cooper yelled. "You piece of shit!" Blaine looked up just in time to see Cooper punch a whole through the wall behind his father. He missed by only inches, the older man ghost white and a terrified look on his face.

"Cooper..." Blaine groaned from the ground.

Cooper stopped and immediately looked over at Blaine. Suddenly his harsh features became soft and he moved quickly over to Blaine, who just now noticed that the long, metal frame of the table was crushed beneath him. Gently, but with much strength he picked Blaine up, wedding style.

"Are you okay bro?" Cooper's voice now panicked and concerned.

"I'm fine." Blaine said quietly, his voice nasally from the shortage of air going through his blocked nose.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Cooper half-whispered as he quickly turned down the hallway, and used his foot to kick open the bathroom door. "just sit here and I'll go grab some wash cloths." He sat Blaine on the cold toilet with immense care and grace before quickly leaving the bathroom.

While Cooper was gone, Blaine merely sat on the toilet and grimaced as all of his injuries began to awaken from the shock and make themselves known. He looked up to the water stained ceiling, his fingers holding his nose closed and his mouth filling with blood. Just as he leaned over to the bathtub to spit the crimson liquid out of his mouth Cooper came back, and shut the door behind him.

"Don't do that Squirt." His voice was soft, just like his mothers used to be. "Look down and let the blood come out. It'll make sure that it doesn't get caught in your throat." Blaine nodded and obliged as he leaned his whole torso over the tub, Cooper holding onto his waist for leverage. After a few moments of Blaine's spitting being the only sound in the small room, Cooper spoke quietly.

"I'm sorry Blaine. This is all my fault."

Blaine shook his head. "Shut up. No it's not." he replied as he spat more blood into the quickly reddening bathtub floor. "Neither of us had no idea he was actually going to put me through a table this time."

"I could have done more." Cooper muttered behind Blaine.

Blaine spat once more, feeling like all the blood had finally gone. He held out his hand behind him and Cooper placed a small cotton towel in it. Blaine moved, bringing his nose to the towel and looked at Cooper, who now had his hands at his sides, limply hanging there.

"It's not your fault Coop. So stop saying it is." Blaine's voice was muffled by the cotton. His eyes looked into Cooper's electric blue ones, the ones that were filled to the brim with guilt and sadness.

Cooper didn't say anything. Instead he leaned up against the wall and ran his face over his hands with a deep sigh. Blaine stood, his hand still holding his towel to his face, and without warning he took his free hand and wrapped it around Cooper's waist, hugging him tightly, and resting his head on his collarbone.

"I love you Coop." Blaine mumbled, his hot breath splashing back into his face and overloading his nostrils with the scent of blood.

Cooper's hands fell to Blaine, one hand behind his neck, and the other to his back, returning the hug tightly. "I love you too, B." He responded with a kiss to Blaine's hair. They stood like that for a moment, Blaine feeling safe and warm, the pain all over his body dulling away as he reveled in the moment of Cooper's big arms wrapped around him, protecting him.

"Now," Cooper said after a long time. "Let's have a look at the nose." Blaine pulled back as far as Cooper's hand would let him, as it was still on the back of his neck, and removed the towel from his face. Blaine watched as his big brother's eyebrows came together, trying to see something specific in the dim, yellow light. After some silence, Cooper declared that it wasn't broken, and that he would probably just have a black eye.

"That's fine." Blaine said as he looked in the mirror, wiping away as much of the blood from his face as he could and seeing the small cuts that were on his cheekbones.

"How are your hands?"

Blaine put the towel in the small garbage can next to the sink, declaring the small piece of fabric a loss. He pulled his hands up to the awful lighting, his skin now having a shade of yellow to it. His hands sparkled faintly around the small, and now dried rows of blood.

"There's glass in them, but after you shower, it should all go away. It's gonna hurt though" Cooper warned.

"Oh well," Blaine remarked. "It couldn't be worse than it did before." He looked over at Cooper, who frowned. "I'll be fine Coop." He repeated to his brother who nodded slowly, his eyes, staring at his brother, his arms now crossed over his chest. His brother only crossed his arms when he was thinking intently. "Cooper?" Blaine asked, his brother snapping back to reality. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Cooper reassured him as he pushed away from the wall and dropped his arms. Blaine raised an eyebrow, but Cooper ignored it. "Go ahead and take a shower. "I'll bring you some clothes and a towel, and Ill stand outside the door to make sure he leaves you alone." Blaine nodded, his brother guarding the bathroom door was routine, especially after events like this. Sometimes, Blaine's father wasn't satisfied with his work and thought he needed to finish it.

"If you need me, just yell and I'll come in." Blaine nodded again.

"Okay." Cooper made and stepped out of the bathroom, and putting his hand on Blaine's shoulder as he left.

As soon as Cooper left, he locked the door, it was Blaine's way of letting his brother not to come in yet and to give him a minute before bringing his stuff in. Blaine started with his shirt, but found it to be much more difficult than he anticipated. The blood stuck to the black fabric, hurting Blaine more and more as he struggled to pull it over his head slowly. He could barely raise his arms that high, his left shoulder throbbing intensely before he yelped and brought it back down.

Blaine sighed as he called Cooper's name. He hated it when it was so bad that he had to have Cooper help him get undressed, he always felt embarrassed. Cooper came in a second later.

"What do you need help with?"

"Just my shirt. I cant raise my arms up high enough."

"What hurts?" Cooper asked as he moved to face Blaine.

"My shoulder. I think it hit the metal bar pretty hard." Blaine responded as he rubbed it, the pain not subsiding.

"Hmm..." was all Cooper made before he gestured Blaine to raise his arms. Blaine raised his right arm all the way up, and manipulated it as Cooper maneuvered the fabric to come off of that side of his body, before he turned Blaine around and gently pulled the rest of his shirt off, without having Blaine even move his arm.

As soon as he tossed it on the floor, he walked over to Blaine's shoulder and looked at it from behind. He hissed.

"What?" Blaine asked, visualizing his shoulder blade protruding out of his skin.

"Nasty bruise B." Blaine sighed in relief. "That's gonna hurt for a few days, so be careful with it."

"I will. Now go so I can shower." Blaine shooed him away. Cooper laughed, but obliged.

After a difficult and somewhat painful shower, Blaine laid in his bed, the sunlight setting through his curtains. Blaine's mind wandered to the homework he needed to start, the tiredness that was creeping up, and the stinging pain that enveloped his body. But even as he laid there miserable, at lease Blaine had his project with Sam too look forward to.


	4. Announcements

_**Communication** _

**Part I: Freshman Year**

_Chapter Four_

Announcements

It had been a week since the table incident. Blaine's black eye had faded to a nasty green and his shoulder no longer hurt. Rachel once again disapproved of his half-hearted lie, and after she finally got the truth out of him, she went straight to Cooper and told him to make Blaine move in with her. He tried, but Blaine shot him down, leaving Rachel to pout about it for the rest of the day.

"I really think you should at least tell Mrs. Pillsbury Blaine." Rachel voiced as they walked through the hallway between Algebra and English.

"No." Blaine shot her down again, this time his voice bored of the constant use of the word to her. "You know if I tell her she'll run to Figgans in a second."

"She has this policy that if you talk to her, whatever is said in her office, stays." Rachel elaborated as they turned the corner.

Blaine scoffed at her words, but didn't have time to answer them before Rachel gasped and stopped dead.

"What?" he asked, looking around the hall. The football players weren't here, they couldn't be. This was the math wing. They didn't go there.

"Quinn." she whispered shakily, and sure enough as soon as she said it the wall of students in front of them began to part like red sea. Quinn Fabray was the epitome of a gorgeous cheerleader. She had a ridiculous body, and beautiful blonde hair that was always up in a ponytail to showcase her status in the school as head bitch.

As she walked forward the students huddled into corners and pressed themselves up against the lockers as far as they could, making sure there was enough room for her, Santana, a slim and bitchy Latina girl, and Brittany, a tall blonde girl, who apparently wasn't that smart. As she strutted down the hall, she caught sight of Rachel, who was pressed up against a locker too, and smiled maliciously as she advanced on her prey.

"Hello RuPaul," her blue eyes reeked of evil. "Gay Burt Reynolds." She nodded at Blaine, but ignored him aptly after that. He wasn't her target. Blaine just rolled his eyes, which granted him a threatening look from Santana. "There's a rumor going around that Homecoming is only a couple of weeks away." She stepped closer to Rachel, who looked like she was going to melt into a puddle of fear at any moment. "I'm just hoping I won't see you and your hideous mustache in attendance at  _my_ dance."

"It's not your dance Quinn." Blaine said. Quickly her head whipped to Blaine's direction, her eyes on fire, but it was Santana who spoke to him.

"Excuse me, Hobbit." the Latina said said as she closed off the space in between them. "Puck just now told me that he hasn't had the pleasure of kicking your gay ass today. Should I change that?"

"No!" Rachel squealed from her spot. "Just ignore him!"

"Hmm..." Santana said with a smirk. "You're lucky Barry is here to protect you Elton John, I wouldn't want to see your pretty face hurt again before I got a chance to try and turn you." She moved closer and kissed Blaine slowly on the cheek. "It would only take one time." He hands grazed over Blaine's crotch.

"LOPEZ!" a loud female voice came from somewhere behind Santana, who sighed at her name. She moved back and Blaine saw the massive figure of Coach Beiste standing a couple of feet back. "Leave that boy alone. You too Fabray!" She intimidated as she marched forward. Immediately the three girls backed away. Blaine liked Coach Beiste. She was a huge woman, the muscle mass of her would make a sailor look pathetic. She had shorter brown hair and always sported the same black athletic shorts, and a Nike athletic shirt that changed colors with the days. She was also the football coach.

"Get to class before I write you all up!" She shouted. Quinn just rolled her eyes and gave one last look at Rachel, a look of warning, before she and the three girls walked away, the sea of students still separating for them as they made their way down the tile.

Coach Beiste watched the bullies walk away before she looked around her at the kids that were watching around them. "Get to class!" she yelled. A couple of students jumped at her volume and in a matter of seconds the hallway was bustling around them again. "Are you okay Anderson, Barry?" She asked as she turned around to look at the two kids, who were still pressed up against the locker.

Blaine's heart was beating fast, not because of anything Santana did, but rather, what she  _said._ Her threat of Puck beating Blaine up was a very real threat, a threat that was most likely going to happen before school got out.

"Um-yes." Rachel mumbled, her voice small as she looked down at the ground, Blaine knew she was crying, but since Coach Beiste didn't notice, he decided not to point it out.

"Let me walk you two to class?" Beiste asked, her tough face soft and caring. Blaine and Rachel just nodded and followed her as she let the two lead the way as she kept an eye from them from afar. Blaine felt awkward being watched as he walked down the hallways, not only by Coach Beiste, but every single pair of eyes that he passed by. It was the exact reason why he didn't like people getting involved, especially adults. They treated him like he was a child, like he was defenseless. It would only be a matter of time before Cooper found out, Blaine was sure of it. As they reached the front of their English class, Blaine and Rachel turned to face Coach Beiste.

"Thank you for walking us to class Coach." Rachel sort of mumbled as she looked down at the ground.

The coach smiled. "Anytime puddin'. You just let me know if you need me to do it again and I will." Rachel nodded, which granted a smile form the large woman before she turned and walked down the hallway.

"I'm sorry Blaine..." Rachel made as they entered the room, but Blaine just waved it away, his full attention on Sam's spot in the classroom. He hadn't arrived yet, but Blaine had assumed it was because he was late, or going to be very close to it like he always was, so he casually walked to the back, and took his spot across from his best friend. Suddenly Rachel turned her whole body to him.

"Blaine! I just realized something! Quinn said something about Homecoming!" she was very excited at this point, her mouth in a large smile and her brown eyes wide.

Blaine nodded to her, as his eyes looked into hers. "Yes, but I don't know if I want to go."

"Awe!" She whined. "Why not? It'll be so much fun!" She clapped her hands together, causing a girl behind her to look at her as if she had a mental disability.

"Because..." he started slowly, taking his eyes off of the girl behind Rachel. "Aren't school dances kind of...lame?" Rachel looked at him, her look made it seem like he offended her deeply. "I'm just saying," he continued. "they're always so ridiculous, and the music is  _so_ bad and everyone has to spend crazy amounts of money on an outfit they're only going to wear like what, once? It just seems so unnecessary."

Blaine's eyes traveled up to the door as he watched Sam and Mike walk in laughing a shoving each other around, getting a look from Mr. Caine.

"It's all about the romance!" Rachel said, as Blaine's eyes tore themselves away from Sam as he walked down the aisle.

"Hate to break to you Rach, but I don't really have a line of suitors waiting to take me to some dance." he leaned in as he spoke, making sure Sam and Mike couldn't hear. Rachel didn't respond, but she just rolled her eyes and shook her head as the bell rang and Mr. Caine stood to address the class.

-ooOOoo-

A half hour later, Blaine was half-leaning the small table in the school's library, his hands in his hair, and his frustration levels rising. He and Sam had been trying to learn as much about each other as they could, but Sam wasn't giving him very much. As far as Blaine knew, Sam was fourteen, his hair was actually that blonde naturally, he had green eyes, his favorite movie was Avatar, he loved Cool Ranch Doritos, his favorite color was blue, his favorite singer was Johnny Cash, he hated English, but was good at Math. All of these things were useless to Blaine.

"There's no way I can write a whole narrative about this Sam." Blaine groaned as he leaned back and rubbed his face in his hands. "And we only have twenty more minutes of class to figure something out."

"Well," Sam responded as he picked up the list about Blaine that he had made, "You haven't given me much either. All I know about you is that you have a brother, your favorite color is red and you don't have a favorite band or movie. That's less than I gave you."

"We gotta come up with a theme or something." Blaine thought aloud, trying to think of something he and Sam had in common, but it was difficult. Neither really told the other much about themselves.

"Well..." Sam said, his eyes looking at the ceiling above them. "We don't have to present these do we?" Blaine shook his head. Sam leaned forward, his green eyes looking into Blaine's. "Well, my mom says the best way to get to know a person is to get to know the struggles they've been through. She says that hardships are what can shape a person...or something like that." Blaine didn't respond immediately, he was trying to see where Sam was going with it.

"So you mean, like talk about our obstacles in life?" Blaine asked.

"Yeah..." he paused. "Just forget about it." Sam moved his hand in front of him, like he was trying to wave the idea away.

"No, its a good idea!" Blaine said. "It will help us get to know about each other and we can get a lot of information for our papers!"

"You really think it's a good idea?" Sam asked bashfully.

"I really do Sam." Blaine smiled at him, which he returned enthusiastically. Blaine felt like he was going to melt right there in his chair.

Quickly, but in great detail, Sam told Blaine that he had dyslexia and that sometimes it was hard for him to concentrate in school because the letters would get jumbled, and numbers would switch on him. He told Blaine that when he was younger he went to a tutor who was especially strict and every time he read the wrong word she would hit him over the knuckles with a wooden ruler. He told Blaine of the hours he had to spend on homework each night and that he had already been kicked off the football team twice for his grades.

Blaine took furious notes as Sam spoke, making sure he put down as much information that he could in his notebook. He was so fascinated by Sam's dyslexia for some reason. In a million years, Blaine never assumed that Sam had a learning disability, he just kind of assumed that Sam maybe was just like every other football player, and was just not that smart. Once Sam finished speaking, Blaine looked up at him.

"Your turn." He smirked at Blaine, which caused his heart to race.

"What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about what it's like to be gay here." Sam said quickly.

"Why?" Blaine asked, confused by the interest. Immediately his brain went to a million different directions.

"I know it sucks here for you dude." Sam said as he leaned in. "Puck's not really the greatest guy on the planet. He treats your brother like shit because of you."

"Gee, thanks." Blaine responded, immediately going into defensive mode.

"That's not what I meant!" Sam said, seeing his mistake. "I'm just saying, it's got to be hard."

"I don't like talking about that Sam." Blaine said in a final sort of tone. Sam looked at him for a second, but didn't push the issue. "I could tell you about my mother though..."

"Okay." Sam said, his tone still friendly, even though Blaine was sweating enough to make him immediately self-conscious. The last thing he needed was for Mr. Caine to see Sam's paper and start asking questions. That would just make Puck's wrath even more deadly. Sam leaned forward, his pencil in his left hand. Blaine looked around at the library as he spoke.

"Well, my mom died when I was seven." Sam looked up, but Blaine kept going. "She had brain cancer. I don't really remember exactly  _how_ she died, but I remember that Cooper was a mess about it and I remember that I knew she was going to die." Blaine looked at Sam. Sam's eyes were sad, but once Blaine encouraged him to keep writing he looked back down. Blaine continued.

"I remember that she used to smell like, rose and a sweet kind of perfume that I don't know the name of. I remember that a lot of people came to her funeral, all of them dressed in black. My dad took it the worst though, he didn't talk to anyone for the longest time. He just sat in that black chair and stared at the television." Blaine opened his mouth, but closed it again when he realized that he was going to talk about how his ad then turned to alcohol, but he caught himself.

"Man..." Sam whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." Blaine said with a stale tone. "Things happen, and sometimes the bad things that happen, are what make us good people right?"

"Yeah..." Sam agreed as soon as the bell rang.


	5. Homecoming

_**Communication** _

**Part I: Freshman Year**

_Chapter Five_

Homecoming

 

Blaine shivered as the cold, October air around him attacked his nose, making it hurt. His hands were sandwiched in between his thighs for protection and his black beanie was pulled low down over his ears. The crowd around him yelled and cheered, but Blaine just sat on the cold, metal bleacher and tried to figure out how football worked.

"The linebackers are supposed to protect the quarter back." Rachel pointed to some large men in white and blue jerseys who were all lined up in front of a smaller guy. Cooper was on the opposite side of the line, one hand on the ground. His number, fifteen, was smudged with dirt and grass stains, but Blaine could still see it.

"What happens if they don't?" Blaine asked as someone yelled "Hut!" and everyone began running around.

"That does." Rachel grimaced as the smaller guy in the white got brutally tackled by Puck and the football flew a couple of feet away from him. Immediately after the hit, the crowd around Blaine erupted. Apparently what ever Puck did was something to celebrate. Puck put his arms up and welcomed the love the crowd was giving him. Blaine did nothing but looked up at the scoreboard and found that McKinley was ahead by twenty-one points against Thurston.

"Now that Thurston couldn't get rid of the ball before fourth down was over, they get a penalty and it's pretty much guaranteed that we won." Rachel smiled to him.

"Good." Blaine said as another shiver ran over him. "That means we can go home."

"Not yet." Blaine groaned. "They have to kill the clock to ensure our victory." Rachel looked at him. "You should be excited! Homecoming Week is always the best part of Homecoming! The parade is always so cool, and the game, plus all of the sales on the dresses and-"

"Where did you learn so much about football?" Blaine interrupted her, not even really listening to what she was rambling about in the first place. She stopped short, but answered him anyways.

"My dads taught me. They actually really love football. Every year we watch every game in the season. We all have different favorite teams of course, but its a cool family experience." She smiled as she remembered something and then turned her eyes to Blaine. "Cooper's never taught you?"

Blaine watched as the clocked counted down the seconds. "He's tried, but I just don't understand it. He always gets impatient and gives up." Rachel giggled, which earned her a look. "What?"

"I just think it's funny. The all Intelligent Blaine Anderson, the boy who doesn't understand football."

"I never claimed to be smart." Blaine said as a matter-of-factly.

"No, but your report cards say so."

Before Blaine could respond a loud buzzer noise rang through the cold air, and the crowd around he and Rachel went nuts. Blaine assumed that this signified a win for McKinley, but more importantly, the game was over and Blaine could get to some place that was warm.

Blaine watched as Puck ran from the field, meeting Quinn with a hug and a rather intense kiss. He felt his face turn into a grimace. How was it fair that terrible people like Quinn and Puck found happiness and love, despite how terrible they were to people? Rachel must have seen the same thing because quickly she suggested that she and Blaine wait for Cooper by the car, Blaine didn't need any convincing and they made their way through the crowd of people.

"Did you find a date to the dance tomorrow?" Blaine asked as they walked down a small and darkened path just outside of the field. Some people milled around them, trying to get an early leave before all of the traffic.

Rachel pouted. "No. Cooper denied me almost instantly yesterday."

"He had a date the day it was announced Rachel." Blaine informed her as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "You should have told me you were going to ask him, I could have spared you the denial."

"Maybe I'll just stay at home. I should work on my project with Mike, and my French test is next week-"

"I could just take you to the dance Rachel." Blaine said as they turned the corner towards the parking lot, but Rachel stopped dead.

"Wait, really!?"

"Sure." Blaine responded with a smile as he stopped too and looked back at her.

She ran forward to him, her hands grabbing Blaine's jacket. "Oh, that would be amazing!" She beamed up at him, but then her face contorted. "I thought you didn't want to go though?"

"I kinda don't, but I know you do and I don't want you sitting at home."

"Awe! Thank you Blaine!" She hugged him tight, her face nuzzled into his chest.

"Anytime Rachel." He smiled, but after a moment he felt uncomfortable. "Okay, let's go to the car. I think Cooper wants to get food." Rachel detached herself from him, but still held his hand and looked at him.

"Really Blaine, thank you so much. It means a lot that you'll take me."

Blaine didn't know how to respond to the sudden emotional moment, so he just smiled back at her.

-ooOOoo-

"Cooper, I look ridiculous." Blaine complained as he adjusted the black bow-tie that was around his neck.

"I promise B, you look good!" Cooper pressed on behind him as he examined Blaine's black and turquoise tux in the small mirror of Blaine's bedroom. "Plus Rachel will freak out that you two match."

Blaine groaned, partially because he knew that Cooper was right and Rachel would indeed go bezerk that he decided to match her on surprise, but also because he was starting to regret going in the first place. As Cooper stood next to him and adjusted his blue tie in the mirror Blaine stared at him,

"What's up Blaine?" Cooper asked when he saw Blaine looking at him, his face becoming suddenly serious.

"How come you get to wear a regular tie and I have this stupid bow-tie?"

Cooper chuckled as he straightened his back in the mirror. "Ashley wants me to wear a regular tie. She said that it would make me look taller."

"Coop, you don't need to look taller. I'm the shorter one." Blaine said, standing up straighter next to Cooper and seeing a sizable difference between them still. He sighed.

"Cheer up man." Cooper said turning to face Blaine who had slumped onto his bed. "It's a school dance, try and have some fun tonight."

"That might be a little hard considering almost every single person I'll be locked in the room with hate my guts." Blaine grumbled, his eyes following Cooper as he moved across the room and sat next to Blaine.

"Ah, they don't hate your guts." Cooper responded with a sly smile. "They hate everything else about you. Your guts are fine."

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm kidding bro!" Cooper said, nudging Blaine and chuckling. "It's gonna be fine. I'll be there. Rachel will be there and so will Beiste. Everything is gonna be fine."

"Alright." Blaine sighed standing up. "Let's just get going so this can all be over with."

"That's the spirit!" Cooper said enthusiastically as he jumped from the bed. "Let's go have some fun!" and he strutted out of the room as Blaine followed him, rolling his eyes.

Thankfully, Blaine's father was already asleep. Cooper had mentioned something about him drinking heavier than usual that day so he passed out early, which was a good thing for Blaine. He didn't want to show up to the dance with blood all over the tux that Cooper rented for him. The two brothers moved through the house quietly nonetheless ensuring their easy escape.

As soon as they got outside, and the door had been locked, Cooper got loud. "I'm so excited Blaine!"

"Yeah, me too. Can barely contain it over here."

"I know you're excited!" Cooper declared as he unlocked the door and got in the drivers seat. "You just want to save it for the dance."

Blaine shivered as the low temperature attacked his hands almost immediately. "Yeah. You figured out my secret." he rubbed his hands together as Cooper started the ignition and allowed heat to feebly begin to blow onto Blaine, who stuck his hands onto the vents quickly.

"Really?" Cooper asked, hopeful.

"No."

Cooper became disappointed for a second, before his face lit up again and he mumbled something along the lines of "I know your excited" before he backed out of the driveway.

"Who are we picking up first?" Blaine asked after a full minute of silence, aware that Cooper had fully planned on picking up both Rachel and this Ashley girl from their homes.

"I thought we would get Ashley first, and then Rachel, that way when you're inside of Rachel's I don't have to wait alone."

"I'm sure that you are just too scared to wait alone, and you need a pretty girl to stay here and protect you." Blaine said as he rolled his eyes.

"That's exactly what I need. A pretty girl to fight away the monsters." Cooper retorted, and Blaine chuckled. Cooper smiled at him as they continued their drive to Ashley's.

The rest of the ride consisted of Cooper singing loudly, and sort of terribly, along with the radio while Blaine just stared out the window at the colors that whizzed by him. After some time, Blaine didn't know how long it had been, Cooper finally pulled over to the side of the street in a foreign neighborhood to Blaine. All of the houses looked the same in the impending darkness to Blaine. They were all at least two stories tall and white. There were various nice cars in the driveways, some houses even had boats or RV's sitting in their driveways, next to their expensive cars. Lights were on inside of all the houses Blaine looked at, spilling onto their perfectly manicured lawns. Some people were outside, probably also preparing for the dance, Blaine assumed.

"I'll be right back Squirt." Cooper said as he shut of the car and looked at his brother.

Blaine nodded. "I'll move to the back when I see you guys coming, that way it won't be awkward."

"Ah, you don't have to-"

Blaine just put his hand up to stop his brother from protesting. Cooper just chuckled.

"Thanks, bro." Blaine nodded and Cooper got out of the car. Blaine watched him walk up to the massive, green front door that was surrounded by the whitest house Blaine had ever seen. Blaine could see Cooper fidgeting with his jacket and tie, before the door suddenly opened and a portly man in a sweater vest opened the door and invited him inside.

As he waited, Blaine just studied the neighborhood around him. He noticed a sleek, black car sitting in Cooper's date's driveway, the logo quickly gave away that it was a Lexus. Blaine just rolled his eyes. Of course they had a Lexus. Then suddenly he felt very self conscious sitting in Cooper's old car. He imagined neighbors just peeking out of their curtains and scowling at the poverty stricken vehicle that had invaded their crisp neighborhood.

Just to be sure, Blaine looked around at all of the windows in the houses, looking to see if he could see anyone judging him. It didn't last very long though because a slight movement out of the corner of Blaine's eye told him that the door had opened and Cooper was about to make his return. Not even bothering to impress anyone, Blaine just unbuckled himself and climbed over the seats, his limbs sprawling out around him. Eventually his body weight allowed him to finally collapse in the seat, with just enough time to get a look at Cooper's date.

She was a thin girl, but no so thin she looked sickly. Her skin was an even tanned color, but not an orange. She had short, bleach blonde hair that was accompanied with a hair piece that Blaine couldn't decipher immediately. She was wearing a short, hot pink dress, white clutch purse, and pink stilettos to match. Blaine could see why Cooper liked her, she was the epitome of a blonde bombshell. To Blaine, she sort of looked like a model.

Blaine continued to study the girl until she and Cooper got closer to the car, then he just simply looked down at his hands in his lap. He hear Cooper open the door and the girl finish a giggle as she climbed inside the car. Immediately Blaine could smell her floral perfume fill up the car.

"Hi! I'm Ashley! You must be Blaine?"

Blaine looked up to see the girl looking at him, a wide smile spread across her mouth, her glittering white teeth on full display.

"Y-yes." Blaine stammered, caught of guard with Ashley's friendliness.

"Nice to meet you Blaine. Cooper's told me a lot about you." She held out her hand, which Blaine took lightly and shook.

"Don't worry bro, it was all good things." Cooper smiled at him through the rear view mirror as he got in the car. Blaine didn't respond, but it didn't seem to hinder the atmosphere of the car. Ashley asked Blaine a few questions like how he was liking freshmen year and some of his classes, even as well as expressing her own excitement for the dance. Blaine responded politely and quietly, but didn't answer in full detail. Ashley either didn't mind or was literally the nicest person that Blaine had ever met. Blaine learned a little about Ashley as they weaved around the roads to Rachel's house.

Ashley was a cheerleader and a dancer at Thurston high school. She, like Cooper, was a senior. The two had met a Dairy Queen about a month ago and had been talking since then. Blaine was almost astounded that Cooper didn't tell him about her sooner, but then came to the conclusion that he probably didn't want to jinx it.

"Here!" Cooper announced as they pulled up in front of Rachel's house. Rachel lived in a comfy one-story house closer to the school. Like with many other houses in Lima, the lawn was nicely decorated and kept well maintained by her fathers.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Blaine said as he opened the door and got out. He followed the small, stoned path to Rachel's front door. After he rang the bell he looked down to make sure everything was still in place, and amazingly after his acrobatic stunt over the car seats, everything still was. After a few moments Hiram opened the door and smiled broadly as he discovers it was Blaine on his front porch.

"Blaine!" He said joyously and brought the shorter boy in for a hug, which Blaine returned with a s smile. "It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too Mr. Barry." Blaine responded, but earned a wave from Hiram's hand as they both walked through the foyer.

"Please, call me Hiram." He smiled again as he stopped by the stairs and smiled at Blaine again. "As soon as he stopped Rachel began to walk down. The timing was so perfect that he could have sworn it was choreographed. As Rachel moved down the staircase, Blaine could see her long turquoise dress touch her toes. It wasn't ridiculously layered or puffed up in an y dramatic way, but it was still formal and she looked great in Blaine's opinion. Her hair was left down, but it was cut to frame her face nicely. Her heels and small purse were both white and the jewelery she wore was all silver to compliment the dress itself.

"You matched me!" She squealed as she ran forward off of the last few steps and hugged Blaine. "I thought you weren't going to do it!"

Ah well," Blaine smiled as they broke apart. "You kept bugging me about it so I thought I might as well just make you happy."

"You look so good too! Where did you get it?" Rachel asked as she put her hand on his chest to feel the tux he was wearing.

"Everyone has their secrets dear." Hiram answered for Blaine as he tried to come up with a reason to explain his sudden nice tuxedo that didn't require him admitting that Cooper rented it for him. Rachel just looked at her father and smiled in understanding. The visit to Rachel's was a short one as Blaine promised Hiram that Rachel would be home by no later than eleven and gave him Cooper's number just in case. Rachel kissed her father goodbye, gave her love for LeRoy, who was still at work, and they left.

As soon as they got into the car Cooper whooped with excitement. Blaine smiled as Rachel spoke to him about her excitement. He still wasn't  _that_ enthusiastic about the dance, but for a brief moment he smiled about the idea of just being with friends at an event. It was rare for Blaine to actually be surrounded by people that didn't actually care who he liked, or what his definition of sexy was. Even Ashley was starting to grow on Blaine. Her immediate friendliness was a fresh change for Blaine. Normally, people looked at him like he was the host of some deadly and extremely contagious disease; but Ashley just kept smiling back at him and asking he and Rachel questions about their friendship and school.

When Cooper finally pulled into a parking lot, Rachel actually squealed in delight and clapped her hands. Blaine shot her a look, but she didn't see it. The four walked through the parking lot, passing by the dozens of cars that were actually on time. Blaine and Rachel walked behind Cooper and Ashley, who had now found each others hands and attached them together. Rachel must have seen this because she grabbed Blaine's right arm and held onto hit as he brought it up to his stomach.

-ooOOoo-

Blaine watched Cooper and Ashley hold each other close on the dance floor in front of him as a slower song that he didn't recognize played around them. White and sky blue balloons crowded around them, as well as the other couples that also decided to tackle the dreaded "slow dance." Above the groups of dancers hung snowflakes of various sized and designs, changing colors in the bright lights that they were attached to. The light wood floor was covered in confetti from the earlier crowning of Homecoming Royalty, which saw two seniors that Blaine didn't know win, and Puck and Quinn take the underclassmen royalty spots. Blaine groaned loudly as their names were called and made a disgusted face that he was pretty sure Puck saw. Rachel was sitting next to Blaine in chairs off to the side of the floor. Blaine noticed that she kept looking around for her prince charming to randomly appear and whisk her across the dance floor.

"Waiting for someone?" Blaine asked close to her ear as she looked around even more.

"Not a particular person, just a specific one." she responded without looking at him.

"That doesn't even make sense Rach." Blaine observed.

"You wouldn't understand."

"I'm kind of offended..." Blaine joked to her. "I thought I was your date. Am I so bad that you want to ditch me already?"

Rachel gave him a look. "Of course not Blaine. You just never know when your Prince Charming will come along. I have to stay on the lookout at all times, and while you're very cute, where not really interested in the same things."

"Sure we are." Blaine smirked at her. "We both want strong, wealthy and attractive men."

"No Blaine!" She whined. "That's not what I meant. I just want to fall in love with someone who won't look at me weird like everyone else does. I want someone to look at me like Cooper looks at Ashley." She turned back and looked around the room again.

"Don't I know it..." Blaine said as his eyes followed Sam and a brunette girl walk onto the dance floor. Sam was wearing a tux like everyone else, except his jacket was missing and he just had white dress shirt on. The sleeves were rolled up to about elbow length and his black tie swinging in the air as he walked. Blaine didn't even look at his date very much, but just closed his eyes and pretended that it was his hands that Sam's big , strong ones were holding. He pretended that he was putting his hand on Sam's strong shoulders and that Sam's hand was slipping around his waist and pulling him close.

"Do you want to get something to drink?" Rachel asked.

"No." Blaine said without opening his eyes. "You're ruining my fantasy."

"Juice will help. Come on." Rachel said as she grabbed Blaine's arm and pulled him rather forcefully towards the punch bowl. Blaine's eyes flew open as he stumbled over his own feet. As soon as he got adjusted, he noticed that Mike was there with a small plastic cup, slowly using the big plastic ladle to pour his juice.

"Hello Mike." Rachel said with a big grin as she pulled Blaine to stand next to her. For a moment Mike looked surprised, then looked around him. Blaine rolled his eyes.

"Hi." he responded quickly, his eyes not really looking at Rachel but at the room behind her, where the song had changed to something more upbeat and people moved to fill in the spaces and dance more sporadically.

"Rach-" Blaine started, but Rachel put her hand up to cut him off.

"Are you enjoying the dance?" Rachel asked, her voice different than Blaine was used too. Blaine pushed his eyebrows together and looked at her, but once again she ignored him.

"I am...and you?" He asked. Blaine knew that he wanted to be out of this situation, but was too polite to say so. Rolling his eyes again, Blaine pulled his arms away from Rachel and her awkward conversation and turned to look at the room behind her. It only took a second to find Sam and his date again, only this time they weren't on the dance floor, but sitting in the chairs that Rachel and Blaine vacated only seconds ago. Suddenly, Blaine moved his vision away from Sam to something puffy and pink heading toward him.

Quinn Fabray had her eyes locked on Rachel, giving her the most frightening death stare that he had ever seen. Sensing danger Blaine turned quickly around. She held a small cup full of red punch in her gloved hands; a malicious smile was perched on her perfectly painted pink lips.

"Uh, Rach-" She held her hand up as she kept talking to Mike about her need to dance. Mike looked uncomfortable, clutching his cup. "Rachel!" Blaine tapped her hard, but Rachel ignored him again. Mike too noticed the danger and his eyes grew wide as he spotted Quinn." "Rachel! Turn around!" Blaine almost yelled.

"Yes Rachel," a silky and evil voice behind them both said. "turn around." Rachel and Blaine both froze before they slowly rotated around. Quinn was only standing a couple of feet away from them both. Her smile was still as evil as ever and the cup was cradled every so threateningly in her hands.

"Good evening Quinn." Blaine started.

"Shut it." Quinn commanded without even looking at him, but keeping her eyes locked on Rachel. "RuPaul, didn't I tell you not that long ago that I didn't want to see you here tonight?" Blaine looked around and it seemed that no one was paying attention to them Blaine looked at Rachel through his peripherals to see that she looked absolutely mortified.

"I asked you a question." Quinn said darkly.

"I-uh-I just thought that you wouldn't mind if-"

Quinn chuckled in a way that would have probably been adorable to Blaine if she wasn't the exact definition of awful. Rachel quit stuttering after the laugh.

"Of course you thought..." Quin thought aloud. Blaine felt his face scrunch in confusion as her statement trailed off. "Well... I suppose that we're just gonna have to teach you a lesson on thinking without me telling you too."

The moment around them seemed to pause. Blaine's eyes flicked to the chairs where Sam was and saw his date storm off away from him as he stared after her, a mixture of anger and confusion on his face. Then he saw Quinn arms move quickly, the cup of red liquid flying at Rachel. Blaine moved to try and protect her dress, but it was too late.

"Remember that next time you decide to think that you can come to my dances when I tell you not to." and Quinn smiled at them both before she walked away.

Blaine turned around to assess the damage and found that Rachel was literally  _covered_ in red punch. Her hair dripped next to her face, he tan skin had a slight tint of red to it. Her make-up was already beginning to smudge and her dress had turned such a dramatic darker shade of turquoise, it was almost black in the light. Rachel just stood rooted in the spot, droplets of punch dripping into the puddle that surrounded her white shoes, which were now drenched in juice as well.

Rachel stayed rooted to the spot, her eyes closed. She didn't move for a second until she exhaled. Very suddenly her faced contorted and she began to cry. Blaine rushed forward and grabbed her by her shoulders to lead her out of the gym before people noticed something was wrong and decided to make even more fun of the already vulnerable Rachel. People looked as them as they passed, but they said nothing to them and just resumed with whatever activity they were doing before.

As soon as they got into the brightly lit hallway, Blaine turned Rachel around and hugged her close. She smelled heavily of fruit punch and he felt his chest get wet as the moisture soaked into his clothing.

"It's okay Rachel." Blaine mumbled as they stood there and she cried into his chest. Her arms hung at her sides and her full weight was pressed up against Blaine. Blaine just mumbled good sayings and pet her soaked hair until she calmed down a few minutes later and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry I ruined your night Blaine." she sputtered through her drippy mascara.

"Shut up." Blaine said softly with a smile. "You didn't ruin anything. Quinn did."

"No, we shouldn't have come-"

"Rachel!" Blaine said, grabbing her shoulders and looking at her directly in her eyes. "You. Did. Nothing. Wrong." he repeated. "Tonight was great." He tried to keep his tone optimistic. "Let's go get you cleaned up, then we'll get Cooper and Ashley and go home. Deal?" He looked at her eyes as she nodded slightly, her bottom lip literally trembling as she held back her tears.

"Alright." Blaine said with a small smile and led her down the hall way where the bathrooms were located.

Lucky for them, Blaine couldn't see anyone, which meant that all would be clear so Rachel could clean herself up and Blaine could wait patiently and unharrassed, at least for now. Blaine could hear a weird squelching sound every time Rachel stepped. It didn't take him long to decide that he didn't really like the sound.

As soon as the reached the little nook in the hallway where the doors to the restroom were located across from each other, Rachel turned to face Blaine.

"Are you going to leave me?" She whimpered.

"No." Blaine said confidently. "You're my date. Where would I go?" Rachel smiled meekly.

"Okay." she mumbled. " I won't be long."

"Take the time you need." Blaine smiled at her.

As soon as she pulled open the door and disappeared into the bathroom, Blaine walked around the small corner and leaned up against the wall that was partnered with the one in the bathroom Rachel was in. He closed his eyes and began to rub his face in his hands. They hadn't even been at the dance for an hour and it was already ruined.  _This_ is exactly why he didn't want to come in the first place. Other people would never let him enjoy something as simple and innocent as a school dance. It was so frustrating to Blaine that doors in his life were closing before he could even open them all the way. He sighed heavily and withdrew his hands from his face.

When he opened his eyes he jumped a little. Sam was standing next to him with a half-smirk on his perfect lips. "You're having a bad time too?"

Blaine nodded. "Story of my life."

"At least your date is still here," Sam pointed out. "Sorry to hear about that by the way. Quinn's kind of a bitch." He nudged Blaine, whose body went instantly warm at the contact.

"Y-yeah, well, as soon as we get her home- we like me and Cooper- and we get some ice cream in her, she'll- uh, she'll be fine." Blaine feel foolish for not being able to produce a single proper sentence while talking to Sam. He was nervous for a reason he couldn't explain. It wasn't like he hadn't spoken to Sam before. Sam didn't respond, but just nodded. Blaine was grateful.

"Why did your date leave anyways?" Blaine wondered aloud, but quickly panicked when he realized that he was invading. "Sorry! You don't have to tell me." He retreated.

Sam chuckled. "It's cool dude." Blaine exhaled. "Um-Bridgette left cause I wasn't gonna...uh..."

Blaine just looked at him, his eyebrows raising in interest." Sam looked nervous, and was slowly turning red. "She-uh- she was mad because I told her I wasn't gonna...you know..."

"I don't." Blaine laughed as his eyes looked into Sam's blue ones.

"Because he wouldn't fuck her!" A voice yelled from behind Blaine. Blaine's whole body felt hot immediately. His eyes unfocused from Sam's as the fear crept in. Slowly Blaine turned around and to his dismay he found Puck standing at the end of the hallway, hands in his black slacks, and conveniently flanked by Finn and another large football player.

"It's not that shocking though," Puck said with a scoff and a smirk as he walked closer to Blaine and Sam, who was no longer leaning against the wall, but standing straight up behind Blaine. "Sammy keeps hanging around all this fagginess... girls can smell it. They think it's disgusting." Puck stopped about a foot away from where Blaine was standing. His eyes flicked to Finn, who was now moving in front of the door to the bathroom, where Rachel was. By this set-up Blaine could tell that he was about to get jumped. Finn was there to keep Rachel from breaking up the fight. Puck was an asshole, but he always pulled his punches when Rachel got in the way. Apparently he wanted to make sure that her interference wouldn't mess up whatever plans he had.

Blaine sighed. "Well, it's a good think I'm not really trying to attract any girls. More for you Noah."

"His name is Puck." Finn said threateningly from Blaine's right side. Blaine ignored him.

"Sorry,  _Puck"_ Blaine said sarcastically. Puck ignored it as he stepped closer. His eyes looked at Sam behind Blaine. "This is so you don't catch the gay Evans."

The last thing Blaine saw was Puck's fist flying to his face. Then he felt just pummeling blows all over his whole body. Blaine just stuck his arms up to cover his head as his body rolled to the side and contorted into the fetal position. Evidently, the other football player joined in because Blaine could also feel shoes kicking into his ribs.

Blaine could hear Rachel banging and yelling his name somewhere, but his only savior wasn't coming to his rescue. Blaine felt the tears coming to his eyes, but it was near impossible to make them vocal as one last swift kick effectively knocked the wind out of him. When the beating finally stopped, Blaine kept his eyes closed and rolled his body into itself. Blaine began coughing loudly, causing Puck to speak louder in order to be heard over them.

"That's what happens to fags Evans. This is your one fuck up. Hang with him again, and the same will happen to you." Blaine felt the warmth of Puck's spit hit his face as he heard the footsteps march away.

Before Puck and his goons had fully left, Rachel burst out of the bathroom, still smelling like fruit punch.

"Oh my god Blaine! Are you okay!?" Her voice was panicked. Blaine uncovered his face and just nodded as blood dripped out of an unknown wound on his face. "Where does it hurt?" She asked.

"Ribs..." Blaine choked out and motioned down to his side. Rachel was blurry in his tear-filled eyes, but he saw her look down as her hand weaved through his gel-ridden hair. Her other hand moved to his side, causing him to wince when she barely even applied pressure on it.

"O-okay..." she apologized quickly. Blaine closed his eyes again as he finally cried. Suddenly he heard Rachel's voice get angry.

"Thanks for all the help Sam. I hope your fucking  _thrilled_." If Blaine weren't on the floor laying in blood and crying her probably would have been shocked that Rachel actually cursed. As quickly as her voice got angry, it became soft again as she spoke to Blaine. "I'm going to get Cooper or Ashley so we can go home."

Blaine nodded as he heard her heels click away quickly, and Sam's quiet sniffles echo in the hallway.


	6. Confessions

 

  
_**Communication** _

  
**Part I: Freshman Year**

  
_Chapter Six_

  
Confessions

The weekend passed by too fast for Blaine's liking. His ribs still ached, causing him to limp around school. He knew that he must have looked pathetic; one hand covering his side, and his face scrunched up into a wince anytime he moved even slightly.

Blaine was angry at Sam. How could he just sit there and watch someone get the shit beat out of him, and then cry about it? Blaine considered that he cried because he felt guilty, but he dismissed the claim almost instantly. If Sam really did feel bad, then why did he leave after Rachel showed up with Ashley? Why didn't he stay and say sorry? Why didn't he make sure Blaine was alright?

He tossed around the idea that maybe Sam feared that Puck's threat was real. It was possible after all, but Blaine's brain wouldn't allow Sam to get off that early. He should have stayed and made sure. Blaine would do it for him.

But see, that was the one issue Blaine kept coming to. He would have stayed with Sam. He would have made sure that Sam was okay, hell, he probably would have stepped in to protect Sam, but there was a massive difference.

Blaine had a heart aching and self-loathing crush on Sam. He would do anything to protect Sam, because he had feelings for him, whereas Sam felt nothing for Blaine. Blaine wasn't even sure if Sam even viewed him as an acquaintance. Sam wouldn't step in for Blaine because maybe he thought Blaine deserved it, maybe he set the whole thing up on purpose. Blaine wasn't taking chances, because he might not ever know if this was all an elaborate ruse created by Sam.

But that accusation didn't last very long, because just as quickly as Blaine's brain invented it, it extinguished the thought. Sam wouldn't do anything to purposely hurt Blaine. Blaine took a shot to even guess that maybe Sam wasn't smart enough to even come up with a plan like it, then he felt bad for insinuating that Sam was dumb and became frustrated with himself.

He tried to give Sam the benefit of the doubt, because well, he couldn't force himself to actually put any real blame on Sam for what happened on that Friday, but at least he could still stay mad at him, because why the hell not?

Rachel wasn't very good at hiding her anger for Sam, Blaine even guessed that maybe she wasn't really making an attempt to shield her new-found hatred for the boy.

“I just can't see why he didn't step in Blaine! He was right there! He could have at least taken on Puck!” she ranted as the weaved through the hallways towards English. Blaine merely grunted at her response, doing his best to not add fuel to Rachel's fire. The last thing he needed was for Rachel to start a one-woman war on Sam. “I thought you guys were becoming friends too! He seemed like such a nice boy....” she trailed off as the entered Mr. Caine's bright classroom.

The pair made their way to the back, where their seats were and sat in silence. Blaine could feel people watching him as he limped to his seat before collapsing into it with a groan. Rachel gave him a concerned look, which was ignored. Blaine was too focused on the fact that Sam was going to be here any moment. He wasn't sure if he was ready to see Sam. His heart beat faster and sweat began to creep out of his pores as the seconds ticked by on the small, white clock on the wall behind Rachel. He didn't want Sam to see that he was angry, even if Blaine himself couldn't explain where all of his anger was directed.

As Blaine was lost in his head, he almost missed Sam and Mike wander into the room. He noticed that Sam's face was blank. Normally Sam would be laughing with Mike and running to his seat before the bell rang, but not today. His eyes stayed to the ground. When he reached his seat he slumped down he kept his head down. Mike was wearing a frown and whispered a short “Hello” to Rachel before he too sat, and letting his eyes flick over to Sam every few seconds. Rachel's looks where less than concerned, but more filled with fire.

The bell rang around Blaine as he stared at the back of Sam's neck. Almost immediately Mr. Caine began to speak which made Blaine finally look up.

“How many of you have finished your papers about your partners?” A few people, including Rachel and Mike raised their hands. “Good, good. Now you all of you who have not finished, I sure hope that you all have at least started because trying to turn it in tomorrow without much knowledge of the other person will result in bad grades for the both of you.” Some kids looked nervous and Blaine swore he could see one of the ugly girls gulp hard.

“Now, we are going to go ahead and start our second project. Who remembers what it was about?” Rachel's hand shot up, but Mr. Caine looked over it. “Evans? Do you remember?”

Blaine's eyes went to the back of Sam, who now had his head up straight. “Uh-yessir I do.” he responded. Mr. Caine raised his eyebrows in an effort to urge Sam to tell him. “You told us to pair up with two other people and write a story right?”

Mr. Cain made a weird movement with his head and shoulders. “Almost.” Sam sighed. “You and your already existing partner will group up with another pair of your choosing and then write a fictional story that stars the other three members. The story may be about whatever you wish, and just like this essay, you will not have to present it, but of course,” he looked over his glasses and smiled, “I'm always open for any volunteers. Now get to work if you need to, or brainstorm with your partners.”

Blaine leaned back in his chair and pulled out his phone and headphones as Rachel heaved a great sigh and rolled here eyes that Mike suggested that Sam had to be in the group if Blaine was to be. Just before he decided on Seven Devils by Florence + The Machine, Rachel conceded in an agitated tone and Mike grinned.

Ignoring all of them, Blaine pulled out his math homework and began working away at the tedious problems. Getting lost in the music and the jumble of numbers and misplaced letters, Blaine wouldn't have noticed that class was over before he knew it, if Rachel and tapped his shoulder and shown him the empty classroom around him. Mumbling an apology, Blaine stood, took his headphones out, and quickly gathered his things.

“Excited for the short week?” Mr. Caine said unexpectedly from his desk as the teenagers made their way towards the exit.

“Uh, yeah.” Blaine said as he limped towards his teacher.  
“Is everything okay with you Blaine?” the teacher asked. “I know this year only began, but you don't strike me as the kind of student to put music in his ears and ignore the world while he does today's math problems in English.”

The question caught Blaine off-guard. “Uh-no-yeah. I'm fine Mr. Caine.”

“Alright.” The teacher gave in. “Just don't let them get to you Anderson. One day they're going to washing your car for quarters.”

Blaine smiled. “Thanks Mr. Caine.”

“No problem. If you need anything, my door is always open, that goes for you as well Ms. Berry.”

“We'll remember that.” Rachel smiled to him. “We'll see you tomorrow.”

“I sure hope so.” Mr. Caine said as they left the room.

As they exited the door, Blaine's eyes immediately found Sam, who was at his locker a few feet away from the room. Rachel's posture straightened quickly and her eyes narrowed.

“I don't even get why you're so mad at him.” Blaine said as they watched Sam drop his English book on the ground and hit his toe.

“Because, he treated you bad Blaine.” Rachel simply replied. “He could have helped and instead all he did was watch you get beat up and then cried about it. He couldn't even go and get Cooper.”

Blaine looked at Rachel as she shot daggers his way. “He's about to.” She indicated into Sam's direction, where a clearly angry Cooper was now standing facing Sam.

“What?” Blaine complained as he quickly hobbled over to Cooper. “Cooper. What are you doing?” Cooper didn't even answer him, but just pt his hand up to Blaine's face to silence him.

“Stay away from him,” Cooper commanded, his voice string and his brows furrowed in anger. “or you'll have to deal with me next time. Do you understand?”

“Cooper, shut up-” Blaine began, but was cut off by Sam's quiet voice.

“No. He's right.” Blaine's eyes went wide in disbelief. Sam's eyes stayed on the ground below him as he spoke. “You got hurt because of me. I could've done something and I didn't.”

“Sam, you don't have to listen to him. He's not my keeper.” Blaine spit out, looking at Cooper who seemed to be unfazed by his anger.

“No.” Sam repeated as he shut his locker. “He's right.” and then he just walked away. Blaine's body turned to watch Sam walk away, his anger, betrayal boiling up inside of him.

“Thank you Cooper.” Rachel said behind Blaine. In an instant, he turned to both of them.

“Fuck you both.” he spat and then limped towards Art in a furious rage.  
Blaine had tunnel vision on his way to class. He didn't look out for Puck or Finn, but instead played the scene over and over in his head. When the hell did Cooper get the job of managing Blaine's friendships? If Blaine wanted to hang out with Sam, he could. He didn't need Coopers permission or even his goddamn protection. As Blaine turned the corner into the Fine Arts hall, his phone vibrated. He knew it was probably Rachel asking him why he was so mad. Blaine just ignored it, and entered the room, which was the first one on his right.

The art room at McKinley was massive. It had taller ceilings than most other class rooms. The brightly colored walls were lined with student works, some excellent, others more abstract. The floor was tiled and covered in various splatters of colored paint and clay. The tall windows let in a significant amount of light on a nice day, but the cloud coverage from the impeding winter snow made the florescent lighting more effective. The room smelled like dried paint and whatever candle the teacher, Mrs. Perry had chosen for the moment. In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, she apparently decided on a strong pumpkin flavor.

“Good afternoon Blaine.” Mrs. Perry greeted him at the door as he entered. Blaine just nodded towards her and ambled past. Blaine like Mrs. Perry for the most part. She was an older, shorter woman than Blaine. She had short, black and gray spiky hair and small horn-rimmed glasses that held onto a chain around her neck. She always wore billowy, bright clothing over her thin body, and always smelled like something Blaine knew he had smelled before, but could never place.

Blaine plopped down in his seat. Mrs. Perry had told the class that she didn't like the separation that desks gave her class room, so there were nine massive tables spread around the room, that seated six students a piece. Blaine supposed that Mrs. Perry wanted her students at each table to become best friends through out the year and share their art projects and talent with each other in a happy-go-lucky environment. The only problem is that reality chose not to work in her favor. Many people who were already friends before the class sat next to one another and everyone else sat alone, and didn't really talk to many other people.

A couple of people had already arrived before Blaine did, but they were hunched over their desks working on whatever project was due before the end of the week. Blaine didn't meet any over their eyes and just sat in a back corner table. No one sat next to him. No one sat in front of him. The nearest person to him was a girl a table over to his left with down syndrome named Becky Jackson. On the first day Blaine mistaken her disability as an inability to be mean to anyone. He was wrong. He once mumbled a hello to her as they caught each others eyes.

She called him “Gay Blaine” and told him to never speak to her again, thus ending their almost friendship.

As people slowly filed in before the bell, Blaine pulled out his phone and checked to see that Rachel did indeed text him, asking for an explanation. Blaine didn't respond to her. He was pissed that she sided with Cooper. How could she be snotty towards the idea of Sam and Blaine being friends? The way she said it too! It was like she was relieved that she dodged some kind of bullet. Was Rachel jealous? Did she feel threatened that she was going to be replaced?

Before Blaine could answer his own question, the bell rang and Mrs. Perry entered the room with the rest of the stragglers in front of her. She explained to the class that they would continue their current project of a self portrait. There were no restrictions on what they turned in, just as long as they felt as though it represented them in an “artful way”. Some kids used chalks, others used paints and charcoal, some even decided to used digital art like Wacom tablets and Photoshop. Blaine decided to go the simple route of a pencil drawing. Blaine loved the way lead moved across a paper. Lines were never solid, there were always some spots that were lighter than others. He never used mechanical pencils when he drew, because the lead wasn't as true and gritty and Blaine liked. It was like cheating to him that the lines were always perfect. As Mrs. Perry kept talking, Blaine withdrew his already finished page from his backpack and put his headphones in.

Blaine decided to not use a ruler, or a picture of himself. He used lined, notebook paper instead of white paper of fancier surfaces. He wanted to draw himself from what he saw. His short curls always a mess on top of his head. He drew his eyes smaller than they actually were and the iris' much, much darker. He drew his nose a little wider than it was and his lips much thinner. Blaine was aware that the disproportionate person on the lined paper in front of him was incorrect, but he liked how rough and almost alien-like he looked. Blaine always viewed himself as an outcast, as someone who was in a place that he didn't belong. The only thing on his face that actually looked the same on both canvases, were his eyebrows, and the only reason those were left untouched was because they were the only things on his face that Blaine actually liked.

Florence + The Machine shuffled into his ears and Blaine did a once-over of his portrait again, shading in places, and erasing others as his mind flew directly towards his anger with Rachel, Cooper and now Sam.

Blaine finally made another friend besides Rachel. He finally connected with someone for another reason besides being a fellow outcast and in a second it all was ripped away from him by the two people who always claimed to “have his best interests at heart.” Blaine scoffed out-loud, but made no moves to try and pretend like he didn't. He just kept his eyes on the paper below him blindly scratching more dark lines onto already existing ones while his mind grew clouded.

Why did Cooper decide that this was the best way to protect him? Blaine didn't need protection from Sam, just from everyone else. Cooper was pushing away the wrong people! So what Sam didn't step up and fight for Blaine? Why should he? Sam never accepted the role of guardian, but then again Blaine never offered Cooper or Rachel the role wither. They kind of just took it upon themselves. How could they expect Sam to just decide to do the same?

But why did Sam agree to stay away? To protect Blaine? Why did everyone think that Blaine was some kind of helpless puppy? Blaine always made it clear that he didn't want their help; save for some Asprin from Rachel. As the thoughts swirled around in his head, Blaine felt his hand grow more heavy and sporadic, no longer following the self-made lines Blaine had set out before. Blaine didn't want anyone's help. To be honest he just wanted to be left alone at least ninety percent of the time. He didn't want people following him around and kissing his scrapes or give him ginger ale for an upset stomach. He just wanted to get through the next few years and move far away from this place and start over.

Then it clicked. Blaine's hand froze. Why wait a few years? Why not just leave now? He had rope at home, he knew how to tie it just right. He had a solid rafter in his room. Cooper and Rachel would be upset, but that would be it. No one would probably even notice, and if they did, they would all just be relieved anyways.

Blaine knew what he was thinking about. He knew, deep down inside, that what he was thinking about was beyond selfish. He knew it was a stupid thing to consider, but he still couldn't shake the idea. All class period he thought about the perfect way to properly kill himself, right down to the exact time. He was going to do it that night. Right before Cooper got home from practice and just after his dad passed out on the chair in front of the television. Blaine didn't feel sad, or even scared about what he was planning, but more relieved and blissful that he finally felt like he had found an answer. He still needed a push though to make sure. On a small bottom corner of the table he was at, he wrote it down in crooked handwriting.

“Tonight I am going to kill myself.”

Blaine stared at it for a long time and felt confident about it. The words looked right, like they belonged there against the light wood. Blaine looked up to see that Mrs. Perry was at her desk, grading or whatever teachers did towards the end of class. There was only five minutes left of the period and Blaine spent them staring at the words as songs played faintly in the background of his head.

When the bell rang, Blaine barely heard it. He contemplated erasing his words, but decided to leave them there. He couldn't even explain to himself why he wrote them on the desk instead of a piece of paper, but he pushed the question away. It was unimportant. As he stood, he didn't even feel his leg hurting. It didn't matter anymore. Blaine collected his papers and limped out of the room in a trance. He was confident in his choice. It felt right to him, like it was meant to be.

When he made it to the gym for P.E he went straight to Coach Beiste and asked if he could sit out for the day. She nodded and explained that it was dodge ball day anyways so she kind of figured he would want to. Blaine half-smiled at her and just made his way to the empty bleachers and sat there. He didn't pay attention to the game or the shouting. He just replayed and perfected his plan in his head.

It seemed like it had only been fifteen minutes when the bell rang. Blaine reached down to grab his bag, but only grasped air. Confused, Blaine scrunched his brows together and mentally retraced his steps. He decided to check the art room first because he knew he had it there last.

He made his way there as quickly as his now revitalized limp would let him, moving past yelling students, excited to get home. Blaine just used his elbows to get there. Some people looked offended and angry but what did it matter anymore? Tomorrow they wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

When he finally made it to the room he found the door open and Mrs. Allen standing there with a smile.

“I figured you'd be back.” she said to him, but Blaine didn't answer. He walked past her and his eyes immediately found his bag sitting right next to his chair. He sighed in relief and walked over to get it.

Instinctively, Blaine looked for his words on the bottom corner of the table. What he did find was something he didn't expect.

It was a response. The writing was just as small, but not as neat.

“Please don't. People care about you Blaine.”

Blaine felt his eyes grow wide at the words, but decided not to stare at them for too long in case Mrs. Perry was watching him. Quickly he took a pencil out of his bag and looked over at her. She was talking to a student, a girl who was older than Blaine, maybe around Cooper's age. Blaine flipped the pencil over and erased the words quickly before he left the room without a word.


	7. Taking A Stand

_**Communication**_  
 **Part I: Freshman Year**  
 _Chapter Seven_  
Taking A Stand

Blaine's eyes read the paper over and over again. He checked for typos, grammar and spelling errors, made sure his format was correct, and triple checked that everything made sense. Overall he was proud of his paper about Sam, but he still had reservations about how long it was. Microsoft Word told him that he had 8 pages. He was afraid that Mr. Caine wouldn't even read it and instead give him an F for making him read so much. Blaine hated submitting papers online for this reason. He wasn't going to get direct feedback from his teacher, but instead over some e-mail. Mr. Caine should have made this paper due the week after fall break, not the week of.

“Blaine!” Coopers voice came from behind him. “Time to go!” Blaine sighed and hit send.

It was Cooper's eighteenth birthday. Ashley enthusiastically asked Blaine to join her and Coop at Breadstix for a dinner in his honor. Blaine reluctantly agreed. He was still pissed at Cooper and Rachel for what they did. He had barely spoken to Cooper and he completely ignored Rachel at school and denied all of her calls. She followed him around the halls exclaiming apologies, but Blaine wasn't having it. They had no business invading so deeply into his life.

Besides, he was far too busy spending hours wondering who responded to him on the desk. Blaine ruled out Rachel, she had Math in her last hour of the day. Cooper wasn't in the running because he would have went straight to Blaine and yelled at him for what he was planning on doing. It wasn't Sam, Blaine stayed late in Art often and Sam never once walked in. In fact, as far as he knew, no one sat in the back corner after him.

Trying to figure out who it was turned out to be the easy part, even of he had failed so far. The more difficult decision came when he didn't know what to say back. For the whole week leading up to break, Blaine didn't respond to the person. He just constantly looked down at the gray smudges his eraser left behind and tried to build up courage to say something.

He felt so silly for being nervous about this. Someone knew what he was planning on doing, but they obviously didn't say anything or else the bullying would be much worse. He didn't care if this person felt they could blackmail him. He just wanted to know who it was.

“Come one Blaine!” Cooper shouted again, this time with irritation in his voice. Blaine shook his head to make the thoughts go away, stood and grabbed the black jacket from the back of his computer chair with a sigh. In truth, Blaine didn't want to go out with Cooper and Ashley as some pity third wheel, but at the same time he kind of wanted to be around for Cooper's birthday; even if they were barely speaking.

Blaine threw on a thicker black sweater over his thin jacket with a grumble to himself. A few seconds later he heard Cooper's footsteps getting closer to his closed door. Without hesitation, Cooper beat on the wood.

“Come one Blaine! I don't have all day!” he shouted, now irritating Blaine, who didn't answer. Instead, he just walked over to the door and opened it.

Blaine felt Cooper's eyes drilling into him as he walked past, but made no attempt to look back into them.

“About goddamn time.” Cooper made as he followed Blaine into the darkening living room. “I'm getting really annoyed of this bullshit cold shoulder thing, Blaine.” Cooper said as he kicked an empty bottle out of his way. Blaine just shrugged and limply apologized before he opened the door and walked out into the cold air. Ashley was already outside when the cold air attacked Blaine's cheeks.

“Hi Blaine!” She said cheerfully as she hugged him warmly. Blaine smiled and hugged her back, just without all the happiness.

“Hi Ashley.” He returned as they broke the hug. Blaine could hear his brother scoffing as he locked the door behind them.

“You two still aren't talking I guess?” She mumbled to Blaine as her eyes watched Cooper. Blaine just shook his head.

“No.” Cooper grouched coming down the porch steps. He left an awkward silence in the air with his words.

“Well, not to worry. Tonight is going to be great!” Ashley smiled as she turned towards her car and put a hand on Blaine's back.

The drive there was silent for the most part. Blaine was thinking about the desk person, and decided to call him Desk Person as an unofficial name until he found out who it really was. Blaine noticed that Cooper was unusually silent and grumpy for it being his birthday. Normally Cooper would make a big deal out of it to anyone who would listen. Cooper was a great guy, but a little self-centered when it came to particular events that exclusively showcased himself, for example, his birthday.

Blaine remembered one year when they were both little and their mother was still alive. Cooper was turning an age that Blaine couldn't remember, maybe eight or nine. They were living in the same house they were now, but it was brighter. There were warm lights everywhere and everything was cleaner. Blaine remembered lots of kids he didn't know running all around him while he sat on his mothers lap. He watched as Cooper stood atop a large pile of dirt and told all of the kids that he was the king for the day, obviously because it was his birthday, and everyone else were to listen to his every command or they would all have to go home. Blaine remembered looking around as the adults all laughed, even his dad who was grilling hotdogs on the now rusted and long forgotten grill situated on their back patio.

Blaine smiled to himself in the quiet car as the images swirled around in his head. Then, he remembered Cooper's birthday before their mom died. Cooper was turning eleven. He stood by the bed all day, talking with their mom, telling her jokes that he had heard at school. Blaine sat on the bed opposite of his brother, his mothers thinning arm wrapped around him to keep him from falling off of the bed. Blaine remembered that the hospital room was dark, only a single florescent light glowing down on them. Even then, Cooper told everyone at the hospital that it was his birthday and reveled in the attention from the staff.

Their mother died a month later, and Cooper only celebrated his birthdays with Blaine every year from then on.

Now that there was another person, especially a girl that Cooper actually liked was apart of the festivities, Blaine assumed that he would be beaming all day, but instead he was grumpy and quiet. Blaine guessed that it was because they were fighting, but when he was being honest with himself he knew that the reason wasn't good enough, because Cooper would ignore it and still make the day about him. Something else was wrong, but Blaine didn't really dwell on the mystery for too long because in just a second his mind wandered back to Desk Person and all the possibilities of who they were.

When they arrived at Breadstix the sun was setting and the three exited the car quietly and walked to the entrance quickly to avoid as much of the cold weather as they could.

When they walked in, Blaine noticed the place was near empty. The bored hostess perked up at the soft thud the door made when it closed behind them.

“Welcome to Breadstix! How many for you?” When she looked up Blaine recognized her from school. She was a sophomore and her name was Britney Fullerton. She was in National Junior Honor Society and looked like she was a beauty queen in training.

“Hi!” Ashley responded just as happily. “Three please.”

The hostess grabbed some menus and asked the trio to follow her as she weaved through the restaurant and found a corner booth in a back corner that wrapped around a small table. There was a collection of white Christmas light hanging above the table, setting a nice and easy mood. Blaine, slid in first followed by Ashley, who probably decided it was a good idea to put some space between he and Cooper.

The hostess said something about someone named Lisa and then bounced away as Ashley immediately tried to engage Cooper into conversation to lighten him up. Blaine was fine with not having the attention focused on him and just looked around him. The table in front of his held a couple that were maybe in their early twenties. The man was handsome with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard, while the woman had long, red hair that she had piled up behind her head. Blaine's eyes fell to their hands, which were conjoined into each other on the table in front of them. He stared at them for a moment and suddenly realized that he was jealous. He wanted that one day. He wanted to sit there with someone he loved and just hold their hand while they told him some trivial story about their day.

His people watching was interrupted when the person who apparently was Lisa blocked his view. She offered drinks, and asked if they had any questions. Blaine suddenly realized that he hadn't looked over the menu at all. He quickly grabbed it, picked something that had mac and cheese with and committed.

After the food came out and the drinks were served Blaine found himself thinking of Desk Person again. He was dissecting everyone's schedule as much as he could. He didn't know what anyone else had, except for Rachel. Desk Person could literally be anyone as far as he knew.

Cooper suddenly laughed, and Blaine looked over at he and Ashley, who was also smiling. “How was your food bud?” Cooper asked him as their eyes met.

“It was okay.” Blaine responded simply, deciding that answering his question wasn't that terrible. “How's your birthday?”

“Better now.” Cooper nodded, acting as though nothing was happening with he and Blaine. “We'll see how long that lasts though.” He mumbled to himself as he checked his watch and looked at Ashley. “We gotta go soon.”

“No!” Ashley said quickly and a little too loud as her head spun around and looked at Blaine. Her eyes were wide, which caused him to cock his head at her. “Can we just.....put all that off for a little longer?”

“Ashley, you know that we can't.”

“But, we should! Who says that we have to be home a certain time anyways?”

Cooper raised and eyebrow. “You know why.” Blaine knew that eyebrow. Ashley made a humph sound and crossed her arms. Something was up, Blaine knew it, but just as he was about to speak up Cooper looked at him and shook his head. Sighing, he gave up easily, but told himself that he was going to annoy the shit out of Cooper later on until he told him.

When Lisa, or whatever, returned Cooper asked for the bill and they sat in silence as they waited for her to return. There was a small scuffle between Ashley and Cooper over who would pay the bill, which Ashley won with last minute eyelash flutters. They gathered their jackets and all held their breath as they moved quickly to Cooper's car through the now colder winter air and new snow that was falling.

Blaine grew even more suspicious as they drove towards the house. Ashley was twitchy and looked back at Blaine every five seconds and Cooper was rapping his fingers against the steering wheel. He has no idea what was making them both so on edge.

“What are you two keeping from me?” he finally asked.

“Nothing.” Cooper obviously lied. Blaine just stared at him through the rear view mirror, which Cooper was avoiding.

“Everything's cool.” Ashley faked smiled at him as she turned around again to face him.

“No its not.” Blaine stood his ground as he leaned as far forward as the seat belt would allow him. “You guys are hiding something from me.” Ashley looked over at Cooper, biting her bottom lip and just turned around silently when he said nothing. “Cooper! Tell me! I'm going to find out anyways!” Blaine was getting angry now.

Cooper ignored Blaine again. He pulled into their snow covered driveway and didn't look back at him until he put the car into park. He stayed silent for a while while Ashley grabbed the hand that was sitting in his lap. He looked over at her and smiled a small smile. Blaine grew even more irritated.

“Um? Hello? I'm finally talking to you Coop and you're just gonna ignore me?” Blaine said from the back. Ruining whatever moment the two in the front were experiencing. He knew he was being annoying, but he didn't care. He just really wanted to know what was happening. Cooper closed his eyes before he turned around and faced his little brother.

“Blaine.” His voice was quiet. “Do you trust me?” Blaine nodded. Of course he trusted Cooper. “Then do not ask any questions until you have done every single thing I tell you. Is that cool?” Blaine was even more confused now, but still nodded. Something serious was about to happen and suddenly his heart began to beat faster. Blaine's jacket became a mobile incinerator, making him warmer and warmer by the second. “When we go inside, go straight to your room and pack up as much as you can.”

Blaine opened his mouth to speak, but Cooper put up a finger. “No questions. Just do it.” Coopers command was final and Blaine shut up, instead he nodded. His eyes went to Ashley who looked nervous. He eyes were big and sad looking.

Blaine knew what was happening. He should have put it together sooner. Cooper turned eighteen today. As of midnight he gained his mothers inheritance. He was supposed to wait until he graduated, but apparently he decided that leaving earlier was better. Blaine couldn't complain, the quicker he stopped being target practice for his father, the better.

“Are you ready?” Cooper asked, his voice still low, like he was telling a secret. Blaine looked into his brothers blue eyes for a moment and nodded. “Okay, good. Let's go.” Blaine looked at Ashley one last time and she smiled at him.

“It's gonna be alright.” She said. “I'll be right here if anything happens.” She put a hand on Blaine's knee and he half smiled at her before he felt the cold air attack him again.

Each step up to their tattered house was agony to Blaine. Even though is was almost twenty degrees outside, Blaine's body was on fire with nerves. His hands were shaking inside of his pockets and no matter how hard he tried to make them stop it wasn't going to happen.

Cooper stopped in front of the door with his keys in hand. He turned his head to look at Blaine. His face was taken over with worry. He stared at Blaine for a second before he nodded at him and jammed the key into the lock before the old door pushed open with a loud creaking sound.

Blaine stayed very close to his brother as they entered. Blaine shut the door quietly behind him as he looked to find his father in the same musty chair he was always in.

“Close the goddamn door princess. It's colder than shot out there!” His father yelled without looking away from the small television in front of him. Cooper walked a couple of steps towards his father before he stopped and looked at Blaine. Blaine moved quickly to the hallway, his eyes on his father, waiting for a bottle to be thrown at any moment. Just before he passed through the room, he looked at Cooper, who was shaking at this point and looked as though he was going to throw up ant any moment.

He literally ran to his room almost slamming the door behind him. It wouldn't take very long for his father to become belligerent. Blaine went to his closet and grabbed an old red duffel bag that Cooper gave him years ago for a camping trip he went on with Rachel and her dads. Immediately he went to his computer desk and grabbed piles of CD’s and shoved them in. He grabbed clothes in the dresser next to him, emptying the drawers within seconds and quickly filling the bag.

“FUCK THAT COOPER. YOU'RE NOT LEAVING.”

Blaine froze. He didn't have much time before his father barged into his room and blamed him. He grabbed his backpack from the floor next to him and grabbed a small picture of he and his mother he pinned on the wall, a pair of black shoes and one more jacket and shoved them in, bending the papers that already inhabited the black bag.

Suddenly there was a crash from the living room. Grabbing the bags quickly, Blaine threw open the door and stood against the wall, just inches away from where the living room was.

“You have never taken care of him. All you do is throw shit at him and call him names!” Cooper's voice was seething with rage and venom.

“It's his fault he's a pansy!” Blaine father slurred back. “He is tearing this family apart. If your mother was here she would hate the little faggot and all that he has done to us.”

“She would love him! She wouldn't waste the money that is supposed to be for him on liquor to fuel her own insecurities and pity.” Cooper fired back.

“I AM HIS FATHER AND HE CANNOT LEAVE!!”

Blaine looked around at the suddenly raise in volume. Cooper was standing by the couch, his chest huffing and his fists clenched. His father was also standing now, his belly protruding out, almost touching Cooper and their faces close and their eyes drilling into each other.

“Fucking. Watch. Him.” Cooper said. At his words Blaine saw his father raise a fist towards Cooper. Without thinking Blaine rushed forward, his eyes only seeing the fist that was coming to his brother.

“BLAINE NO.” he heard Cooper yell but it was too late. Before he could be stopped, Blaine tackled his father, causing them both to fall on the small sliver of ground that there was. Blaine's father growled angrily and twisted his body under Blaine who was now on top of him. Before he could make another move, Blaine pulled his own fist back and fired it off with all of his strength.

Bones collided with bones and Blaine felt a snap underneath his knuckles. His father wailed in pain as the blood raced from his nose. Blaine pulled back his other fist and fired it again, hitting his father in the same place.

Before he could strike again Coopers strong hands pulled Blaine's little body off of his father, who had his hands covering his face and wailing.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH. HOW DARE YOU?” He screamed, his voice breaking from the pain. Blaine didn't move. He just stood over his father and stared at the pitiful mess below him.

“C'mon” Cooper said out of breath. Let's go. Blaine stepped back, but never took his eyes off his father rolling on the ground.

Cooper disappeared for only a second, but when he reappeared Blaine could see he had a large blue bad out of the corner of his eye, as well as both of Blaine's bags, all on one arm.

“Blaine. C'mon.” Cooper said again as he pulled Blaine by the shoulder towards the cold air.

Blaine took one last look at his father on the ground as his knuckles burned before Cooper slammed the door and pulled Blaine towards the car where Ashley was waiting to take them away from this place forever.


End file.
